Faith No More

Background

In 1981, Bay Area, California, musicians Mike "Puffy" Bordin, Billy Gould, Mike Morris, and Wade Worthington formed a band called Faith No Man. A year later when Worthington was replaced by keyboardist Roddy Bottum, and Mike "The Man" Morris was ousted, the group began calling themselves Faith No More. After going through a series of singers which included Courtney Love, the band was joined by Chuck Mosely in 1983. The same year, Jim Martin was recruited to replace guitarist Mark Bowen. A four-song demo tape recorded in 1984 led to the band's first real album, "We Care A Lot," released on Mordam Records in 1985.

Within a year the band signed up with Slash Records, and in 1987 their second album, "Introduce Yourself," was released. The subsequent tour brought Faith No More a good deal of press in Europe, but when the tour was over the rest of the band chose to fire Mosely for various reasons. Mike Patton (Mr. Bungle) was hired in January of 1989 and "The Real Thing" was released six months later.

"Epic" was released as a single in January of 1990 and Faith No More's popularity took off in the U.S. The band received a Grammy nomination for Best Heavy Metal/Hard Rock performance. By the end of the year, "The Real Thing" had gone platinum in the U.S.

Faith No More was part of the biggest tour of 1992, opening for rock giants Metallica and Guns N Roses. After that tour, on which they received lukewarm responses from fans of the main acts, they embarked on tours of the U.S. and Europe as headliners to smaller crowds.

Jim Martin was fired and Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance was recruited for 1995's "King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime." However, once the album was recorded, however, he left the band before touring began. Dean Menta, a former Faith No More roadie & guitarist for the band Duh, was Spruance's replacement. Faith No More then replaced Dean Menta with Jon Hudson (ex-Systems Collapse). The band's sixth studio album, "Album of the Year" was released (June 1997).

In the early months of 1998, break-up rumors spread even more intensely than usual. There was speculation that the band members' many side-projects were taking their toll, and interest in Faith No More was waning. On April 19, 1998 Bill Gould confirmed the split.